My current project: The Carnaby

The Carnaby, designed by Nikol Lohr and published in the Fall 2010 online Knitty, is a skirt reminiscent of the prep-school tartan. This skirt is knit along its length in a two panel pattern. One panel is in box stitch, a 2 X 2 checkerboard pattern that lends huge texture and meatiness, the other panel is a short row stocking-stitch forming a long, thin pie wedge. This combination gives the skirt a natural increase from the waist to hip without darts or increase/decrease shaping at a side seam. It also adds a fun and flirty A-line look.

I have lengthened the skirt just slightly to just-above-the-knee length, so that I can wear it to work without worrying about professionalism. The wrap styling is one of the best features of this skirt, but I plan to make only the top two buttons functional and close the remaining ones permanently. This will lesson the number of button holes that I have to make and make the skirt less likely to open at inopportune times. Big, fat, wooden buttons are what I have in mind. I will have to go button shopping closer to the end of my knitting when I get to the button hole row.

The yarn I have chosen is Wool of the Andes by Knit Picks in a beautiful, creamy avocado color. I like this yarn. I used the Wool of the Andes Bulky when I did my Chocolate Diamonds last fall and decided to try it in the worsted weight. I am glad that I did since I am getting the same good stitch definition that I got with the bulky version. The color is great and is a direct result of my love of the fruit, too!

Well, since I would rather be knitting than blogging. . . Happy knitting!!!

Cutest Baby Dress Ever!

I really love this baby dress. The skirt is full of ruffles. It reminds me of watching flamenco dancers all hot pink and ruffly!

This is a lovely and easy pattern by Paulina Obregón called Tura Maeve Dress. The pattern is available in both Spanish and English. The pattern is written in only one size, infant, however, I was able to use a larger needle and get a size that will be bout a 9 month size.

The skirt is done in three tiers. Each successive tier doubles in the number of stitches. The last tier has 512 stitches per row. That is one way to tire of stocking stitch.

After reading some notes of other knitters on Ravelry, I was able to avoid a couple of problems. A couple of users had thought through the fact that if the buttons are on the back and babies are supposed to sleep on their back. That would mean buttons would need to be flat to be comfortable. And to think that I almost bought big, thick flower shaped ones.

Here is my Ravelry site if you are interested in reading my project log for Sofia's Baby Dress.

Happy knitting.

Savory Custard with Leeks and Cauliflower

Due to allergies and other health issues, I have eliminated a lot of items from my diet including grains and I have reduced the amount of carbohydrates that I eat. As a result, I am always on the lookout for side dishes that are flavorful, easy to make and do not contain grain, white potato, or starchy vegetables. 

I found various quiche recipes that sounded delicious, but alas, quiche is made with a crust. Crust equals grain and carbohydrates, so this wouldn't work for me. HOWEVER! What goes in the crust is actually a form of custard. So why not make a savory custard instead of a sweet custard?

Custards are a liquid thickened or set by the coagulation of egg protein. Therefore, the most important and only required ingredient to a custard is egg. The most famous type of quiche is Quiche Lorraine which is a savory quiche featuring bacon perfected by the legendary Julia Child. Since I wanted a savory custard that would compliment a roast I didn't want any meat in it. So, after a quick trip to the grocery store for a look at the fresh produce, I came up with the combination of leeks and cauliflower. If you decide to test out this recipe, please let me know how you like it.

Savory Custard with Leeks and Cauliflower

4 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

3 leeks

1 head of cauliflower

3 Tbls butter

Salt and Pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 °F.

Rinse the leeks and cauliflower. Slice leeks crosswise into 1/4 inch disks. Cut high enough up the stalk to get some green too. Cut up the cauliflower into smallish bite-size pieces. You will want about one and one half cup of each.

On stove top, melt butter in saute pan and toss in cauliflower, leeks, and salt and pepper to taste. I used about 1/2 teaspoon of each. Saute until leeks and cauliflower are translucent. Pour this mixture in to a greased round glass casserole dish. You will want this to cool a little.

Next beat four large eggs and and add to them 1 cup of heavy cream. The secret to the next step is to make sure that the vegetables are cool enough that the eggs do not begin to cook immediately upon touching them. Mix the egg and cream mixture into the leeks and cauliflower.

Place in oven and bake about 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. 

Some people like their custards/quiches with a golden brown color and some don't. Mine might be too brown for some, but I like it that way. I calculated that the recipe above, as written, has 6.95 carbohydrates per each of 4 servings. If you must ask how many calories per serving, than maybe you don't want to make it!

Happy Eating.

Knitting in Prison

Knitting in prison: group of male inmates ready for creative adventure | Alaska Dispatch:

The article uses words like tranquility, calmness, relax and Zen. Knitting calms me when I am upset and settles me when I am anxious, so I am not surprised that it would have a similar effect on prisoners.

Happy reading about knitters!

Remember -- Don't forget

As I have mentioned before, I commute daily by train into Chicago for work. This gives me lots of time to knit and nap. I usually nap on the way in to the city -- it is usually 5:50 AM when I get on the train; and I knit on the way out of the city. I usually take the same train in, sit in the same seat and often wake up at the last minute as we are pulling into Union Station. There have been three times when I am still sluggish and half asleep when I get off the train and have been forgetful enough that I have left my train pass behind. How I can miss grabbing a pass in a hot pink cover and yellow lanyard. . .  well that is beyond me!

I don't know if anyone reading this has ever themselves commuted, but monthly passes are expensive -- $192.52 a month at the present time. If I loose the pass on the last day of the month -- not a catastrophe, but loose a new pass before the month begins? Ouch!!!

But this is when the man who is usually the conductor on the 5:50 train come in. I learned a long time ago to slip my business card in the pass holder so that if I  lose it and it is found someone might turn it in. The conductor checks passes everyday and sells tickets to those who need them and he knows my pink and yellow pass! He has found it three different times and has called me and left it in lost and found for me. What a guy.

So I cannot leave this unrewarded and I have knitted a thank you gift. In the winter, the conductors have to hop off and on the train at every stop and many of them wear a scarf and gloves with no coat. I decided a scarf that will match his uniform would be perfect. So I settled on a navy blue wool scarf. I wanted it to be something that he can wear so it had to be a subtle design.

I selected a pattern that I found through Ravelry. Memory Lapse is a traveling rib. It is manly enough for a guy and just the "ticket" (pun intended!) as the name is perfect the price is free! The pattern was designed for use with a worsted yarn, but I changed it up when I found a beautiful DK Merino Superwash by Plymouth Yarn. Some modifications were meant to be.

The yarn, like many superwashes I have used has lots of stretch, so I dropped down from a US size 9 to a US size 7. I love, love, love the yarn! It is super soft and is forgiving to uneven stitches. There were a couple of places that I had to knit and tink and knit and tink and knit again and the yarn was sturdy and took the abuse.

The second modification that I made to the pattern came as an accident. The traveling rib is supposed to travel evenly in one direction, however, after just a few rows, I found that I had already switched directions. So I just decided to let the ribs meander as opposed to walking a straight line! It looked pretty wonky as I knitted it. The sides were all curvy and I was putting all my faith in the hope that blocking would make all the difference in the world.

Lesson Learned: Although one of the best purchases I ever made was the lace blocking wires, I have not really used them on more than just lace. So I decided to use them on this scarf. I blocked it out to within an inch of it's life at 10.5 inches wide by 60 inches long. However, it was too flat and the stitches that had been picked up on the blocking wires were stretched out and made the edges look all uneven. So I dampened the scarf with my hands and threw it into the dryer on low heat. Now it looks much better.

Happy Knitting!

Hypotenuse finished!

I told you in my last post, that this skirt was über easy to knit. It was almost too easy. So easy that I made two mistakes.

1. I didn't pay really close attention to the stitch count. Oops! When I got to the end, I ended up with one more "ridge" than I had on the beginning row. I didn't even notice it until I started to block it. The one corner was a little loose and floppy. When I got it off the blocking wires it looked pretty good, then I started to sew up the seam and I found that I was off by one ridge.

2, The skirt also ended up about 2 inches longer than what I was aiming to get. I had thought about raveling back a few rows and re-knitting the corner, but that was not going to fix the length -- that would only be fixed by raveling back about 75% of the knitting. And that was NOT going to happen.

So instead of picking up and knitting on a waistband, which would have given it even more length, I decided to fold over the top and form a pocket for the elastic. This basically solved both problems! The skirt is a little bulky around the waist, but I wore it with a blouse that covered that up.

I wore the skirt to work yesterday. It is light weight, comfortable giving easily when bending over or stooping. On my mile walk from the office to the train it was about 78 degrees yesterday afternoon and I was not too warm. I received several compliments which is always nice!

I am already thinking about knitting another Lanesplitter. But I have another couple of projects to finish first and then there is another skirt that I saw and might like to try: The Paint Chip Skirt. Yum!

Happy Knitting.

Update on Lindy Lu's Sweater

A few weeks ago, I posted about a sweater I made for Lindy Lu, my sister's Italian Greyhound Chihuahua mix. I used the same pattern as I did for Beemer's two sweaters.

The husband and I went to their house for a Labor Day Barbecue and I took along the sweater. Lindy Lu was kind enough to model it for the Camera, but she wasn't very keen on it. Could it have been because it was near 90 degrees?

Isn't she cute?

Happy Knitting!

The Hypotenuse of a Triangle. . .

I have suddenly become enamored of wearing dresses and skirts. A work colleague of mine wears the loveliest dresses and skirts. She is a young attorney who doesn’t let her need for professionalism inhibit the way she dresses. I used to think that if I wanted to be taken seriously at work, I had to dress less feminine. I am sure that part of the reason I have not had a dress in my wardrobe in several years coincided with our move from Tampa, Florida to Chicago, Illinois – but I have to think that at least subconsciously, I stopped wearing dresses to compete at work. Last weekend, this part of my life collided with my knitting life!

I started looking at dress and skirt patterns on Ravelry. I wanted something easy, fast and colorful. I found it in a pattern called Lanesplitter by Tina Whitmore. This free pattern is all of that and fun to knit. It is designed to be knit with one colorway of Noro Kureyon -- a yarn I've used before. I paged through several finished examples by Ravelry members and saw several that were done with two different yarns. Using a light/bright yarn on the row that pops the purl side to the front and a dark/dull color to pull the other row to the back. So what I did was get two colorways of Noro Kureyon -- one dark/dull and the other one light/bright. There is some cross over colors in both of the yarns. There is a lavender and a mix of blue and red in both of the yarns and they came up at the same time in one place, but I think that it gives the skirt interest.

The pattern is über easy! Three rows of knitting and one row of purling. The hardest part of the pattern is the  increases and/or decreases at each end of the rows. Although the pattern has "sizes", because the pattern is basically a rectangle, you stop increasing both sides when you hit the desired length, continue increasing on one side while decreasing on the other side until the other directions hits the desired diameter at which time you begin decreasing on both sides. (It's easier than you think -- read the pattern.) I have the skirt about 60% of the way knit and I have only been working on it a few days. Can't wait to finish it!

Happy Knitting!